Video: SNL Sketch Weakly Defends Lana Del Rey

This past weekend, Saturday Night Live issued a lukewarm defense of their now-infamous musical guest Lana Del Rey in the form of a sketch during “Weekend Update.” Mainly due to Kristen Wiig‘s weird impersonation of her, it was actually kind of funny, if not totally convincing.

When Seth Myers told “Lana” she’d performed two songs from her new album on the show three weeks ago, she replied, “That’s what I thought I did, Seth. But based on the public’s response, I must have instead clubbed a baby seal while singing the Taliban national anthem.”

Point made. Singing badly is far from the worst thing a person could do, and people should really calm down about it.

But then they made the mistake of following the red herring of Lana’s “authenticity” re: her name, pointing out that many popular artists take on fake names. I don’t think anyone dislikes her because of her name.(Personally, I dislike her because her music is repetitive and boring, and I find her lyrics somewhat dis-empowering.)

Then they tried to position her against musical guests past. “The music stage on Saturday Night Live is hallowed ground, and I failed to reach the high bar set by past guests like Bubba Sparxx, The Baja Men and Shaggy,” she said. I don’t think anyone is going to defend these artists’ place in the canon (well, maybe I will defend Shaggy a little) but at least they were/are entertaining. Which is, you know, a big part of an entertainer’s job.

Fake Lana Del Rey then addressed accusations of being “stiff, distant and weird” with the response “I am stiff, distant and weird,” which is fair enough; LDR has never claimed to be a great performer. The sketch ended on a victim-y note, attempting to shame people for “bullying” LDR. Because a highly paid performer who puts her stuff out there in hopes of massive fame and fortune is exactly the same as an odd kid who just wants to be left alone.

What did you think of SNL‘s defense of Ms. Del Rey? Feel free to sound off in the comments.

When I saw Lana Del Rey on SNL I totally thought it was Kristen Wiig doing a sketch at first.

krista

i love kristen wiig, she’s quite spot on. but yeah, that original snl performance was… yikes. no stage presence whatsoever and her voice was off. a lot. i think the problem people have with her rather than other artists is that she tries way too hard and acts like she doesn’t. at least lady gaga straight up says that she loves the attention and rumors that surround her. oh, and i wish she would just go ahead and admit she got surgically putty lips. “im just pouty when i sing” is not an answer.